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April 13, 2018 - Jessica McBride - Office of the Vice President for Research

Liisa Kuhn, center, is inducted into the AIMBE Fellows
National Academy of Sciences. She is joined by AIMBE President Gilda Barabino (left) and AIMBE Chair Anthony Guiseppi-Elie (right). (AIMBE Fellows Photo)

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of Liisa Tiina Kuhn, Ph.D., associate head and associate professor of biomedical engineering in the UConn School of Dental Medicine to its College of Fellows. Kuhn was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for advancing the translation of bone biology to its application in regenerative medicine.

“I am thrilled to be inducted into AIMBE. It’s a great honor,” says Kuhn. “I would like to thank the Society for Biomaterials who sponsored me for this recognition and have provided leadership opportunities for the past 25 years. I would also like to thank UConn Health for providing the resources and research environment that has allowed me to succeed at this level.”

Kuhn’s focus is at the interface of materials science and medicine. Her lab’s research mission is to bring regenerative and anti-cancer technologies closer to patient use through pre-clinical testing and research of novel biomaterials delivery systems. She combines biological and engineering techniques to deliver biomolecules that restore youthful properties to older stem cells. She and her team of researchers are also investigating localized delivery of chemotherapy that may one day minimize adverse side effects related to anti-cancer therapies.

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer.

Kuhn’s research spans fundamental studies to translational research, and she has received several honors for her entrepreneurial efforts. She has an expertise in drug delivery and conducting in vitro and in vivo studies that she gained while working in industry and at UConn Health. Before becoming a faculty member at UConn Health in 2002, Kuhn worked at General Dynamics in San Diego, California and as a post doc at Case Western Reserve University and Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital. She also co-founded and sold a startup company based in Boston, Massachusetts that developed bone graft substitutes.

“Dr. Kuhn is a highly accomplished scientist and this recognition is well-deserved,” says Dr. Rajesh Lalla, associate dean for research in UConn’s School of Dental Medicine. “We are proud that one of our research faculty has received this prestigious national honor in Engineering. This speaks to the breadth and quality of our multidisciplinary research programs.”

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.”

A formal induction ceremony was held during the AIMBE Annual Meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC on April 9, 2018. Kuhn was inducted along with 156 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2018.